Basic randomness of nature and ether-drift experiments

TL;DR

This paper explores the idea that quantum fluctuations indicate an intrinsic randomness in the vacuum, modeled as a turbulent ether, and examines ether-drift experiments to test this hypothesis, suggesting future experiments could confirm the nature of vacuum randomness.

Contribution

It proposes a stochastic ether model of the vacuum and analyzes ether-drift experiments to provide evidence for intrinsic vacuum randomness, linking quantum physics and relativity.

Findings

Current ether-drift data show signals consistent with a stochastic ether.

Cryogenic experiments could clarify whether the signals are intrinsic or instrumental.

Future high-stability resonators may provide definitive evidence for vacuum randomness.

Abstract

We re-consider the idea that quantum fluctuations might reflect the existence of an 'objective randomness', i.e. a basic property of the vacuum state which is independent of any experimental accuracy of the observations or limited knowledge of initial conditions. Besides being responsible for the observed quantum behaviour, this might introduce a weak, residual form of `noise' which is intrinsic to natural phenomena and could be important for the emergence of complexity at higher physical levels. By adopting Stochastic Electro Dynamics as a heuristic model, we are driven to a picture of the vacuum as a form of highly turbulent ether, which is deep-rooted into the basic foundational aspects of both quantum physics and relativity, and to search for experimental tests of this scenario. An analysis of the most precise ether-drift experiments, operating both at room temperature and in the cryogenic regime, shows that, at present, there is some ambiguity in the interpretation of the data. In fact the average amplitude of the signal has precisely the magnitude expected, in a 'Lorentzian' form of relativity, from an underlying stochastic ether and, as such, might not be a spurious instrumental effect. This puzzle, however, should be solved in a next future with the use of new cryogenically cooled optical resonators whose stability should improve by about two orders of magnitude. In these new experimental conditions, the persistence of the present amplitude would represent a clean evidence for the type of random vacuum we are envisaging.